Busy with Modi's rally, no ruling alliance leader at Patna airport to receive soldier’s body

Not a single leader from the ruling BJP-JDU alliance reached Patna airport to receive the body of CRPF personnel Pintu Kumar Singh, who was killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Friday during an encounter with terrorists. The leaders of the BJP and the JDU along with other NDA parties were probably busy with the election rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are scheduled to address a huge gathering.

The family members of the martyred CRPF inspector were upset over the fact that Nitish Kumar gave priority to an election rally and didn’t turn up to pay his last respect to the soldier.

"It's very unfortunate that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not bother to come to pay his last respect," NDTV quoted Sanjay Singh, uncle of the CRPF inspector who was from Dhanchakki village in Begusarai, as saying.

State Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha and Lok Janshakti Party MP Choudhary Mahboob Ali Kaiser were among the people who reached the airport to pay their last respect to the soldier. Besides them, District magistrate Kumar Ravi, senior police officer Garima Mallick, top officers of the CRPF were also present at the airport.

LJP MP Kaiser pointed out that CM Nitish Kumar should have at least sent his deputy to pay last respect to the soldier if he was busy with the election rally. "I am not here for politics. I came to pay my respect," said Congress leader Jha.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi kickstarted NDA’s election campaign in Bihar from the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Sunday. During his rally in Patna, Modi shared the stage with Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U president Nitish Kumar for the first time since May 2009.

This was also the first joint rally of the NDA after more than years 13 years. Besides Modi, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union minister Ramvilas Paswan also addressed the ruling coalition’s Sankalp rally to blow the poll bugle in the politically important Bihar having a total of 40 Parliamentary seats.